Rep. Byron Donalds (R-FL) reacted to White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki’s claim that Facebook is both a public platform and a private company, stating, “You can’t have it both ways.”
Donalds spoke to Breitbart News editor-in-chief Alex Marlow in an exclusive interview on Sunday at Turning Point USA’s annual Student Action Summit in Tampa, Florida.
“I was beside myself. What she admitted at the podium is outrageous,” said the congressman in reaction to Psaki admitting that the Biden administration is colluding with Facebook to flag social media posts the government deems to be “misinformation.”
The White House / YouTubeDonalds called the move “a complete and utter violation of the First Amendment.”
“The First Amendment’s very clear,” the congressman continued. “Government should never abridge the freedom of people to speak, ever.”
“But that’s exactly what they’re doing, and are using the social media companies through the back door in order to do it,” he added. “And then she tried to get cute, she said that, ‘Oh, they’re public platforms.’ Okay, fine, if they’re public platforms, then nobody should be able to censor them.”
“But then she goes, ‘Oh, but they’re private companies.’ Well, you can’t have it both ways. You have to pick one or the other,” Donalds affirmed.
Watch the full interview here:
Matt Perdie / Breitbart News“I don’t care who the president is,” Donalds continued, “[The White House] should never be engaged with social media companies or any media companies to shape messages and narratives.”
“That is outrageous, that flies in the face of what this country is built on,” he added. “If your government is going to find ways to silence you or to remove your voice from the public square, you are on the road to tyranny.”
Donalds went on to say that the goal of “big government, and people who believe in big government policies” is to “co-opt” all of these different industries, and “to bring them in under their power, and under their control.”
The congressman also pointed out the irony in Big Tech giants embracing big government policies.
“The heads of these companies don’t seem to realize that the only reason they even exist is because they’ve had a country that has allowed for economics and for commerce to thrive and prosper freely,” Donalds said.
“The Big Tech guys wouldn’t even be here if it wasn’t for a free market economy,” he added.
You can follow Alana Mastrangelo on Facebook and Twitter at @ARmastrangelo, and on Instagram.
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.